The Hedgehog
by FireRoseFanfiction
Summary: The animal second to the rat, and second closest to God. After running away from the House of Sohma ten years ago, Haku is ready to try and fit back into the society that she was forced to abandon.
1. Memory of You

**(A/N): Let's pretend that there are fourteen members of the Zodiac, because I love them too much to kick one out. I'll make up for it, though!**

_The bitter cold air stings at her exposed legs, white snow up to her tiny knees. The six year-old tries to keep up with her mother, hospital gown and heavy coat only letting her frail body move so fast._  
_She has to keep moving, has to escape, has to get away from the House of Sohma. _  
"_Eek!" She lets out a squeak, tripping into the frozen slush. Haku shivers pitifully, looking around hastily. Her eyes catch another pair looking at her from above. The deep purple that she always liked, belonging to her only friend..._

"Yuki." The sixteen year-old girl mutters in her sleep, still feeling the wintry cold on her skin from the memory. It's been ten years since then, but she can't forget what her mother tries to.  
"Haku, morning!" Her mother's voice pulls her out of the freezing world to the warmth of reality. It was her first actual day of actual school, even though it was half-way through the semester. It had taken a lot of persuading just to get this far, too. The smell of breakfast wafers from the downstairs of their apartment, the place the mother and daughter called home.  
"Coming." Haku replies quickly, getting dressed in the school uniform given to her yesterday. She glances at her reflection in the small mirror, being extra sure to hide the fear in her blue-green eyes. If her mother detects any, she won't make it past the front door.  
"Eat up, honey." Her mother spoons a bowlful of rice onto the table, the rest of breakfast setting prettily. "I've got a lunchbox here for you, too."  
"Thanks, mother." Haku smiles, sitting down to eat.  
"I know the principal said that lunch is provided, but I think this'll be perfect for your first day." Her mother sits down as well, watching her daughter's movements. "I mean, if you still want to, Haku."  
"I do. Really." Haku's gone through a lot just to be admitted to the public school. Forms, documents, entrance exams.  
"Classes start soon, don't they? Are you sure you want to walk there? I know it isn't far, but-"  
"I'll be okay, Mother. Promise."  
"I know you will. Stay safe."  
Haku gives her mother a parting hug as she picks up the delicately made lunchbox, and walks out the front door for what seems to be the first time without her mother.

In truth, Haku had been out many times alone, when her mother was gone at work, or some other such place. She never remembered having a father, only his last name 'Sohma', the last name that cursed his daughter. It was because of that that they lived in this way. In fear of being found. In fear of Haku's curse, and Akito's sure wrath.

Since she had been born, Haku was cursed by the Zodiac. Whenever she was stressed, tired, or hugged by a boy, her body would transform into that of a hedgehog. She remembered how her mother wasn't sure about her only daughter, _only child_, having this _disease_, but she had decided that she would protect Haku.

Then she was old enough to play with Akito.


	2. The Boy In Black

_Akito_. The name still causes her to shiver, long gone pain still coming back. The boy had been fine at first, happy even, as were their times, but then he grew **dark**. And then everything was _**hell**_for her and Yuki.

_Yuki. _The other boy that was with Akito, but he was so much different. She didn't cry when she first met him, like she had Akito. Because Akito was, as the elderly woman had put it, her 'God', the head of the Sohma House for only six years of age. She had liked Yuki, the boy with the dark purple hair and eyes, unlike Akito who was black in both. He was kind, shy, but friendly just like Haku. They both weren't that different, as Yuki was cursed as well. _The rat_, the one under _God_. And she, _the hedgehog,_ was second. Perhaps that was why the trio was forced together, or perhaps just to be Akito's playthings.

A year had passed, and then everything changed.

"_Do you know why your parents leave you with me, my dear Yuki and Haku?"_

"_To be friends?" Haku and Yuki glanced at each other, both unsure of the sudden question. They sat in the middle of the room, alone as always. Akito was painting something on the easel, a black paintbrush in hand._

"_Because you're mine."_

_Silence and more unease._

"_I am God, and you all belong to me. Your parents gave you to me. The world is a black, black place." He strikes the blank paper with deadly precision of black. "In my world, it will be just us. And I will always have you, my animals. Forever in this banquet."_  
_And just like the paper, their world became __**black**__._


	3. Nothing But Black

**(A/N):** **Akito, why are you so mean?**

****Haku doesn't recall much after that, just nothingness. Blackness. She and Yuki rarely saw the other after, having being put in different rooms in solitude. Hearing the voice of Akito rip their fears apart, tearing dreams into shreds, saying it will _never end._ But there was a difference in their own personal hell room. Yuki had visitors sneak in, but she never did.  
_Whenever she saw Yuki, even for a sacred second, they could see the terror in their eyes._  
"_Haru and Rin." He would hardly breath, as they would pass under watch._  
"_I'm always alone." Haku would reply, sadness clinging to each word. _  
"_I'll ask." Yuki would swear, but they could never find where Akito kept Haku. And so it was only her._

"_Yuki's sick. Did you know? He could probably die."_  
_Because of you. Haku curls into a ball, knowing all too well it that it was Akito's fault. Poor Yuki, she wished he was all right._  
"_**Because of you, Haku.**_"

Haku still knows things about Yuki, like how he had an older brother, and that he was born with weak trachea. His lungs weren't strong.  
_When Akito is gone, Haku runs out. Runs faster than she ever has. She has to find Yuki, has to find him. The sounds of coughing lead her through the twisting halls, then silence. Haku opens the only door she sees, and there he is. Her Yuki, bedridden, and looking like he had just come out of solitude, but so much __**worse.**_ _He manages to see her, and smiles like when they first met._  
"_Haku." He almost starts to cough again, but Haku's already at his side. _  
"_Yes, __**Haku.**_" _The dark voice causes both to jump, and Yuki to begin coughing. Akito's there, standing in the doorway, quite smug with himself. The two both know that nothing good will happen right now._  
"_Can you guess what I'm beginning to think, __**Haku**__?" The dangerous voice, always full of poison and lies, maybe truths. She's shaking so bad, never been so scared now._  
"_I've always hated girls. So sneaky, lying, backstabbing. Just like __**you**__." He leaves no time for her to answer, even though she's so scared she can't even speak._  
"_So tell me, Haku, who do you like __**more**__? Yuki, or __**me**__?"_

_And her answer surprises no one, the one word never so strong._  
"_**Yuki**__."_  
_Akito's across the room and on top of her before Haku can blink. Hitting, clawing, shoving, yelling things between blows, but she can't understand a single word. She can't fight back. She never could against her God. All Haku can hear is Yuki struggling to shout her name, to call out for someone, anyone to help, but being drowned out in coughs._  
"_...Haku!"_  
_And then it was __**black.**_


	4. A New Friend

**(A/N): Sorry for forgetting you all! It has been a pretty long time since I've written this, so bear with me. **

****She's at the school's gates before she knows it. Haku has seen them before, having stood outside and watched others go in. Others who belong. And now Haku. A weak smile forms on her face as she takes the first few steps to the new life she deserved.

"Oh, hello! Are you lost?" A girl's voice catches Haku off guard, but the stranger is correct. After wandering aimlessly for her classroom, Haku turns to face the fellow student.

"I haven't seen you before. My name is Tohru Honda." Tohru introduces herself with a polite and unnecessary bow. Haku has never seen such a warm smile before, or kindness.

"H-Haku.. Shinju." Her mother's last name.

"Nice to meet you, Haku." Tohru bows again. Before Haku can respond, a metal alarm goes off and makes her jump. "Oh, no, the bell! We'd better get to class, Haku!"

With no choice, Haku follows Tohru down the hallway and into a filling classroom. New faces surround her, though too busy chatting with another to pay her much mind. Tohru offers the new student the empty desk next to hers with a reassuring smile. She asks Haku so many questions, each response with a nod and few words.

"New waves." A cool, yet strange voice comes from behind the two along with another of:

"Hey, who're you?" The other commands with a rather frightening tone, making Haku flinch as Tohru turns to happily greet the two.

"Hana, Uo, this is Haku Shinju." Tohru introduces the almost shaking girl who gazes down at the floor in sudden interest. "She's a new student, so I'm helping her out."

"Right." A lead pipe spotted with red appears before Haku's widening eyes, forcing her to look up into the owner's. "You weren't sent by the Prince's crazy fan club, were you?"

Haku shakes her head with the mumble of a sort of 'no!' as Tohru tries to save her new friend.

"She doesn't know them. You're okay." The other determines, a strange feeling overtaking Haku for a second, then gone. "Or perhaps, _interesting_."  
"You'll fit right in, then! I'm Arisa Uotani. A friend of Tohru's is a friend of ours." Arisa grins widely, completely changed from seconds ago and frightening Haku more than her threatening introduction.  
"And I am Saki Hanajima." A faint smile is on her lips, curly black hair lightly twisting about with no breeze around. "A friend indeed. Oh, and here's another puzzling wave."  
Arisa perks up, tightening her grip on her pipe with a devilish gleam as Tohru smiles at the orange-haired boy entering the classroom with a slouch.  
"Orange hair."  
"Yankee."  
A volley of arguments fly back and forth between the two as Saki and Tohru talk about something Haku can't hear. Her focus lies on the unnatural hair color, a very faint memory of seeing it once before and with Yuki.  
"I know you." She whispers, just like the ones that were always in the dark house of Sohma. The orange hair of the cat, the cursed reject. "Kyo."


End file.
